Time Heals
by Ankoku21
Summary: An old flame of Katara's returns and runs into the Gaang. He and the Gaang have all changed a lot, but there are some things that can never change. Can time heal the rift? Rated T to be on the safe side for future chapters.
1. Time Flies

I do not own Avatar: The Legend of Aang, if I did a lot of things would be different XD I own nothing in this fanfiction except the idea of the plot (and even then, someone might've thought of this before me XD I don't know, I didn't check) No money or profit is being made from this fanfiction.

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He opened his eyes, groggily. His heart was pounding quickly against his ribs and he felt light headed; he must have started chest breathing in his sleep again. He closed his eyes and began taking slow, deep breaths. After a few minutes, he opened his eyes again and turned, painfully, onto his side. He gazed at the clutter of objects in his room as they slowly came back into permanent focus. As he began to take in his surroundings, he became aware of the sunlight streaming in through the window. It must be late morning, meaning everyone else was probably awake already. He rolled onto his back again with a soft groan, thinking that he should get up and join the others. Even though he knew that no one would mind him staying in late, he always felt bad leaving everyone else to do all the work while he lay in bed all morning. He stared up at the ceiling, dreading the moment when he would have to sit up.

After a few minutes of psyching himself into it, he pushed himself up on his elbows, groaning again as a dull pain began to throb in his chest. It had been a year since he had received the injury, but it still hurt him every day. He swung his legs out of bed and then proceeded to crouch down on the floor, breathing deeply again. He slowly forced himself to straighten up, once more making that dull pain start.

He looked down at his skinny torso; he'd lost a lot of weight in the last year, probably an unhealthy amount; then again, everything else about him was unhealthy, so why should he bother about his scrawny body? Despite his extremely thin figure, he still had faint muscles, although a year of being unable to exercise without experiencing severe pain had diminished them quite a bit. Oddly enough, this was the thing that depressed him the most; he had once been an athletic young man who could do almost anything he set his mind to, but now he was a scrawny weakling who could hardly do even the simplest of tasks without doubling over in pain. He'd almost lost the will to care about himself anymore; in fact, the only thing that kept him from retreating into his room and giving up completely was a small stubbornness in the back of his head that repeatedly made him drag himself up and carry on going. Of all the things that had weaken in the past year, his pig headedness wasn't one of them.

He grabbed his shirt and pulled it on before picking up his belt and securing it around the shirt and the trousers that he had slept in, then he pulled on his boots and tied them tightly to his legs. He moved over to the mirror on his wall and, resting his hands on the shelf below it, stared at his reflection. His skin was paler than it used to be and he had dark circles under eyes which, in his opinion, had lost their old sparkle. He sighed and brushed a few strands of his long fringe out of his eyes. The rest of his hair was getting long, too, (it was already falling to his shoulders) but it had lost a lot of the volume it had once had. He felt pathetic as he looked at the tired and forlorn face that stared back out at him.

He tore himself away from his reflection and moved to his window. He looked out and saw his friends hard at work, re-building their old home. Many other homeless Earth Kingdom residents had joined him and his comrades, all of them searching for a place to live their lives in peace, now that the hundred year war was over. He still couldn't believe that it was really over; the war that had taken his whole family from him had ended in a split second, when the Avatar had defeated Fire Lord Ozai. He clenched a fist on the window-sill as he thought of Ozai, the man who was responsible for taking everything away from him. He had always longed to destroy Ozai himself, but in the end his recklessness and hate had gotten the better of him and he had be forced to sit by as the Avatar took away Ozai's Bending. In his opinion, the Avatar shouldn't have wasted time with Energy Bending, he should have just killed Ozai. How was it fair to spare the life of the man who had taken countless innocent lives without a second thought?

His stomach twisted up and he felt sick as he thought this. He himself was just as bad as Ozai; he had caused innocent people to suffer just as the former Fire Lord had. He had been so consumed with hate that he hadn't cared who was innocent and who wasn't, he just wanted some kind of revenge. The worst part was, deep down, he still couldn't bring himself to forgive the Fire Nation. As much as he wanted to move on and exculpate them, his blood still boiled at the thought of the Fire Nation. He hated himself for this, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't leave the past behind him, something kept pulling it back into the present and filling him with hate.

_I'm pathetic_, he thought, bitterly, as he looked down at the construction below him. People from the Fire Nation colonies were helping the Earth Kingdom to build a home were everyone could live in peace and harmony. None of them were bad people, but he still did his best to avoid contact with them. Not hard considering his injury made it impossible for him to work most days, another fact which angered him greatly. He wanted to help, he wanted to rebuild his home, but he was forced to remain on the sidelines, yet again, and carry out the non-laborious jobs, such as mapping out architectural plans. Everyone assured him these jobs were just as important as the practical tasks, but he still would have preferred to be useful and actually take part in the restoration of the village.

He turned away from the window and leaned against the wall, not wanting to leave his room yet. Inside his room, he felt safe, he felt that he could think these thoughts without his friends asking him if he was alright and trying to comfort him with, what he thought at least, were empty words. What's more, when he was alone in his room, he didn't have to deal with the worried looks his friends always gave him. He knew that they cared about him a great deal, he understood that they were only concerned for his well-being, but he couldn't help feeling even worse when they gave him those sympathetic looks. It felt like they were pitying him for his injury and inability to do anything, like he was some kind of poor, weak, pathetic invalid.

He knew he couldn't stay here wallowing in self-pity. He walked to the door and placed his hand on the handle. He stayed there for a few moments, bracing himself for another day. He turned the handle and pushed the door open, letting it swing shut behind him as he made his way out onto the wooden balcony around his room. He crossed a rope bridge across the high tree canopy and came to a second room, whose door he opened much quicker than his own. There were only two other people in the room who both looked up from a construction plan as he entered. One of them jumped up, looking surprised but happy to see him.

'Jet!'

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Dun dun duuuuun! Not much of a cliff hanger, is it? Please tell me what you think, constructive crit is more than welcome. Also, did anyone guess who it was before his name was said? If so, when did you work it out? I want to know how subtle I am... probably not very XD


	2. Time Hurts

I do not own Avatar: The Legend of Aang, if I did a lot of things would be different XD I own nothing in this fanfiction except the idea of the plot (and even then, someone might've thought of this before me XD I don't know, I didn't check) No money or profit is being made from this fanfiction.

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Smellerbee jumped up from the table, looking quite surprised to see her leader up and about so early; or rather, so early for_ him_. Jet forced a quick smile that ended up looking much more like a grimace, he hated the fact that it was apparently a shck to the younger ex-Freedom Fighter to see him actually awake instead of in his bed trying to regain some form of consciousness after one of his hypopnea episodes.

Smelletbee obviously noticed her faux pas and quickly sat down again, trying to erase all expression from her face so as not to further anger Jet. Longshot, the only other person in the room, looked silently at Jet, his dark eyes conveying the message. _She didn't mean any harm._

'I know, I know,' Jet sighed, irritably.

The room was silent after that, an awkwardness hanging in the air as each cast about for something to change the subject.

'The plans are nearly finished,' Smellerbee said at last. 'Just a few more measurements and everything'll be all set.'

Jet nodded, looking out of the window at everyone below, all working hard on the construction.

'I'm going to join in, today,' he announced, much to Smellerbee's dismay.

'But, Jet, you're still hurt! And all the small jobs have already-'

'I feel fine,' Jet cut across, a warning note in his voice that told Smellerbee that further discussion would not end well.

Smellerbee clenched her fist on top of the table and was about to shoot a particularly rude string of words at her pigheaded friend when Longshot gently put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head. Smellerbee sighed and pursed her lips into an unmistakable scowl but kept her mouth shut. Longshot turned his attention to Jet, a look on his face that clearly said, '_Don't overdo it.'_

Jet pulled a face very similar to Smellerbee's, but he too didn't argue with the silent archer. Longshot, satisfied that both of his friends weren't going to get into an argument, returned to his work of drawing up the remaining plans for the new villiage. Jet turned back to the window, not really paying attention to the workers anymore; he remembered the incident in Yu Dao a few months ago, when the Fire Long and Earth King had finally come to an agreement to allow the Fire Nation collonies to stay alongside the Earth Kingdom people. The Fire Lord, that was another source of great annoyance to Jet; Fire Lond Zuko, who he had met a year ago while travelling to Ba Sing Se. He knew that he had been foolish to get so obsessed with revealing Zuko (or as he had been known at the time, Lee) to the Dai Li; if he hadn't caused such a commotion, he wouldn't have been brainwashed by the Dai Li, he wouldn't have been sent to Aang to lead the Avatar out of the city, and he probably wouldn't have faught against Long Feng and gotten himself so badly hurt. But he also wouldn't have been able to see Katara again. His heart ached at the thought of Katara.

'I'm going to get started,' he said, heading out of the room.

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Just finished reading The Promise, loved it XD Decided to make a refference to the whole Yu Dao thing. Please tell me what you think, constructive crit is more than welcome.


	3. Time Repeats (Revised)

I do not own Avatar: The Legend of Aang, if I did a lot of things would be different XD I own nothing in this fanfiction except the idea of the plot (and even then, someone might've thought of this before me XD I don't know, I didn't check) No money or profit is being made from this fanfiction.

I'm sorry for the truely awful first draft of this chapter, I was in a very uninspired state of mind at that time due to my favourite character dying in another series... It was kind of like Jet all over again XD Hopefully this revised chapter will be a lot better than before.

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Katara watched the waves crashing against the shore, her head resting on her arms which were wrapped around her legs, hugging her knees to her chest. Since her fight with Azula and Aang's defeat of Fire Lord Ozai, she had found herself spending a lot more time dwelling on the past, something she'd been mostly too busy to do when she and the others were still focused on stopping the Fire Nation. Tears began to sting her eyes as she remembered, for what felt like the millionth time, what was probably the worst moment in her life after her mother dying.

_'I'll be fine...'_

His last words rang in her ears, circling in her head, echoing over and over, louder and louder, until she felt like her head and heart were going to burst. She couldn't take it anymore. Silent tears began to roll down her cheeks as she remembered Toph's sad whisper of, 'He's lying.'

'Katara?'

She jumped and hurridly wiped her eyes as Sokka approached, watching his sister warily; he knew that since their defeat of the Fire Lord a year ago, Katara hadn't been her usual self. Of course, for the first few months after Aang took away Ozai's bending, she'd been as happy as everyone else, rejoicing along with everyone else, but as time had passed, she had withdrawn into herself, spending more and more time alone, and when they _were_ together, Sokka ausually got the feeling that Katara's mind was elsewhere. She'd also started having nightmartes in the fast three months, waking up in tears, too distraught to speak, let alone repeat her dreams to anyone. At these times, it was all Sokka and Hakoda could do to comfort her until her sobbing ceased and she fell back into a restless sleep.

Sokka knew, however, what was behind all of this.

'Were you thinking about him again?' he asked, quietly.

Katara nodded silently. Sokka sighed and sat down next to his beloved sibling, putting an arm around her shoulders and doing his best to comfort her. He knew that, now she had nothing like fighting Ozai to occupy her mind, she had been thinking about the past a lot more. At first, he'd wondered if she had been thinking about their mother, which she no doubt was, but he had quickly realized that his mother wasn't the cause of Katara's sadness. Several times, when she had woken in the middle of the night crying, as Hakoda held her in his arms, gently rocking her and whispering soothing words in her ear, when she had stopped crying and was almost asleep again, she had started repeating one name over and over. Jet.

'I know you miss him,' was all Sokka could say to try and ease his sister's pain.

'I don't know why I'm crying,' Katara tried to rationalize, wiping her eyes again as fresh tears threatened to spill forth. 'He was a monster. He tried to kill everyone in that villiage. He used me. Even when we were in Ba Sing Se, I couldn't bring myself to trust him again... But I just can't stop loving him.'

'I know.'

-.-.-

Something had been bothering Aang for a while now. He had returned to Yu Dao several times since the whole incident, but he had not once seen Smellerbee or Longshot. Sneers had informed him that he too hadn't seen his former comrades in a while. Apparently, they were off in their old forest home, working on some kind of new villiage, as they had been for several months. According to him, Smellerbee and the other Freedom Fighters had only shown up in Yu Dao to protest against the Fire Nation, and now that that conflict was all but resolved, they hadn't returned.

Aang couldn't help wondering why, after putting up such a fight to rid Yu Dao of the Fire Nation and then finally accepting that Yu Dao would become a joint Fire and Earth Kingdom villiage, had they left to catty on making their own villiage? He wanted to get to the bottom of this, which meant that he would have to find Smellerbee or Longshot and talk to them... On second thoughts, Longshot probably wouldn't do much talking.

-.-.-

'We're going where!?' Sokka cried.

'The Freedom Fighter's old forest,' Aang repeated.

'Why are you dragging us along?' Sokka whined. 'Look, there's meat here!'

Aang decided that bringing this up during one of his frequent meals with Sokka and Kataa probably wasn't the best idea.

'Sokka, please. We're a team... I might need your help.'

'With what?'

'I'm not sure. I just get the feeling that something strange is going on, and something tells me that I'll need you two with me.'

'I really don't think we should go, Aang,' Sokka said, firmly.

'Why are you so against this, Sokka?'

Sokka said nothing but glanced at Katara, who was staring at her bowl of stewed sea prunes silently.

'Oh! I'm so sorry, Katara,' Aang suddenly realized that he had probably made a huge faux pas. 'I completely forgot, I'm so sorry.'

'I'm fine,' Katara said a tad defensively, looking up frm her sea prunes. 'Why do you think I'd have a problem going there? When do we set out?'

Sokka and Aang exchanged a look; they both knew that Katara would likely find it difficult returning to Jet's old home, but it didn't look like she was in any hurry to admit it and would probably reject any offers for her to stay behind.

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Constructive crit is more than welcome. Unconstructive crit will just be ignored XD


	4. Time to Meet

I do not own Avatar: The Legend of Aang, if I did a lot of things would be different XD I own nothing in this fanfiction except the idea of the plot (and even then, someone might've thought of this before me XD I don't know, I didn't check) No money or profit is being made from this fanfiction.

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_'This isn't good!'_

_Somehow he was managing not to show the agony he must be going through. His ribcage had been shattered, his left lung was badly damaged, and his heart-rate was erratic. His breathing was shallow and laboured, it sounded like it was taking a lot of effort just to maintain consciousness._

_'You guys go find Appa. We'll take care of Jet.'_

_No! She wanted to help too! She couldn't just leave him like this!_

_'We're not going to leave you!'_

_'There's no time. Just go. We'll take care of him. He's our leader.'_

_She'd never heard him speak before... He sounded so calm, and yet there was a sense of urgency in the way he looked at the group. His eyes were serious and, as he looked at her, he seemed to know exactly what was going through her mind._

_'Don't worry, Katara... I'll be fine...'_

_It was even worse to hear him talk, to see him force a smile onto his face... to have him trying to spare her the pain of worrying over him... and maybe of watching him die. She knew that there was little hope for him to survive with such serious injuries. Tears in her eyes, she forced herself to stand and leave with the others in search of Appa._

_'He's lying...'_

'Katara!'

Toph's yelling snapped Katara out of her memories. Looking around, slightly confused, she jolted back into reality. She and the rest of the Gaang (even the new Fire Lord Zuko) were riding Appa to the Freedom Fighters' forest. And, right now, all of them were staring at her.

'W-what?'

'We've been trying to get your attention for ages,' Toph said, huffily.

'We're here,' Aang said, softly.

Jet was doing his best to ignore the dull throbbing in his chest as he worked with Longshot. The two had been working on one of the larger buildings for about two hours. Or, rather, Longshot had been working for two hours; Jet, on the other hand, had been taking much needed breaks quite a lot, and his total work time was probably around thirty minutes or so.

Longshot watched Jet as he placed a hand to his chest, trying to breath through the pain that was currently stabbing through his lungs. His look was one of concern that Jet, despite the pain, noticed at once.

'I'm fine,' he said, forcing himself to carry on working even though his whole body was screaming for rest.

'Wow, that's a big village,' Zuko marvelled at the only half-complete construction just visible in the distance.

'It's even more impressive when you consider they've only been working on it for a few months,' Aang agreed.

'Toph, how come you're being so quiet?' Sokka asked, tearing his eyes from the village.

Toph had been silent ever since they had dismounted Appa. No-one had thought anything of it, but now it was starting to get a little worrying.

'I... I can feel someone...'

'You're going to have to be more specific,' Sokka said. 'There must be loads of people here. Just who is it you can feel?'

'I know this is going to sound crazy but... Jet.'

Katara stared at Toph for a few moments before running towards the village as fast as she could, ignoring the calls that followed her. Her heart was racing and she felt as though she had just plunged into the icy waters of the South Pole. Could Jet really be alive? But why hadn't anyone said anything? She had seen some of the Freedom Fighters just a few months ago, why had none of them told her?

Smellerbee was, naturally, in for quite a surprise when Katara came charging up to her, out of breath and looking like she'd just been chased by a wild ostrich-bear, babbling something about Jet.

'Calm down,' Smellerbee said, as the rest of Katara's friends caught up with her, looking equally out of breath.

'Katara, don't run off like that,' Sokka groaned.

'Where's Jet?' Katara asked Smellerbee, ignoring her brother. 'He's here, right?'

'Y-yeah...' Smellerbee looked extremely taken aback.

'Where?' Katara repeated, desperately.

'He should be in the eastern part of the village,' Smellerbee said, managing to regain some of her usual cool. 'Come on, I'll show you.'

Jet was now in quite a lot of pain. He was ignoring Longshot's worried looks and continued to force his body to carry on through the searing pain in his chest.

'Jet, come down here, you've got a visitor.'

He could have kissed Smellerbee; he could take a break without seeming weak. Almost at once, he grabbed one of the ropes that he and Longshot had used to climb up onto the roof of the building and abseiled back down to the ground, closely followed on the second rope by Longshot.

Katara stared at him as he landed, her sea-blue eyes wide, on the verge of tears. He was really there. The man she'd thought dead for the past year was now stood before her, staring back at her with a look of equal shock on his face.

'Jet?' her voice was barely a whisper.

'Katara... What are you-' Jet suddenly stopped, his hand flying to his chest.

In a split second, Jet was on the flour, coughing violently. Smellerbee and Longshot were at his side instantly, Longshot trying to help Jet up while Smellerbee did her best to calm him.

'We told you not to overdo it,' she said, almost in tears herself.

Katara watched, stunned and horrified as blood began to trickle down from Jet's mouth. She felt helpless and Longshot gave up on trying to move Jet and let him sink back down to the ground where he continued to hack up blood.

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Right, to make up for the very short last chapter (and the lack of motivation) I made an extra effort with this chapter to try and get to the good bits. Thanks for being patient with me.

Constructive crit is more than welcome.


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